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Protecting Your Dental Implants During The Holidays

25 November 2017
by Gregory Price

The holidays are here again, and so is all that wonderful holiday food. Whether you're going all out and feasting on traditional holiday fare with all your friends and family, or if you're just determined to enjoy your supermarket's selection of bakery treats, you're going to encounter a lot of tasty food. If you have new dental implants, your ability to eat that food is going to be just fine. Dental implants, though, require some care during the holidays because of the change in material and the fact that it still isn't a natural tooth.

Watch out for the Wine

Wine, cranberry sauce, tea, dried berries -- there's a lot of staining food available at this time of year, and that's bad for the implant. Your natural teeth can develop stains, too, but whitening those is pretty straightforward. The implant crown is not the same material as your natural tooth, so whitening it may take longer or be harder to accomplish depending on the stain.

Feel free to have those staining foods, but follow them up with sips of water. Brush your teeth after eating these foods -- wait a half hour to give the enamel on your natural teeth time to toughen up after the bath of food acids (e.g., citrus) that you just gave it -- to remove staining particles while they're still loose.

Chew Slowly and Eat Mindfully

Eating mindfully is always good for portion control, but in this case it's also a protective measure. Your implant crown can chip, so treat it like you would your natural teeth. Watch out for hard foods, and chew slowly so that if there's an errant hard bit in there (think half a peppercorn in salami, which is not the softest spice you could encounter), you won't hurt your teeth.

Floss and Inspect

Dental implants let you eat like you had all your natural teeth, and the implant portion in your jaw can certainly let you know if you've bitten down too hard. But they don't replace missing nerve endings. If food gets caught under the crown, you're not really going to feel it if it's soft and not poking your gum. When you brush your teeth, floss them and inspect the area around the base of the crown. Remove stuck food, and if anything appears too stuck, make an appointment with your dentist to get that out.

Dental implants make eating a lot easier, but they're not without their care. All it takes is a little more attention to help those implants get through the holiday food season. Contact a clinic, like Oral Surgery Associates Inc, for more help.

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About Me

Up until a year ago, I did my best to keep my teeth and gums clean. But after securing a new job, I began to work late into the night and didn't have the time or energy to brush and floss before I retired to bed. My busy schedule and poor dental hygiene finally affected my teeth and gums. After experiencing severe pain in several of my teeth, I made an appointment with my dentist. My dentist examined my mouth and discovered three large cavities in my molars. After four long weeks, my dentist finally completed my dental work. I learned a very painful lesson during that time. No matter how busy you are, always brush and floss. I started this blog to inform other people about the importance of good dental care. I hope you find the time to read it. Thanks for visiting.